Staying focused at home

Does this conversation sound familiar?

"That's really great that you get to work from home Tim.  I could never do that."

"Sure, I love working from home.  Why do you think you could never do it?"

"Every time I've tried to work from home I end up doing something else.  Laundry, dishes, playing with the kids, whatever.  There are just too many distractions."

The truth is: this can be a real problem when working from home.  But it's not a new problem, and it's not unique to working out of the home.  Most professionals face it at some point or another.  They reach a point where they are responsible for their own priorities, managing their own time, and they start to lose day to day focus.

Going in to an office daily has two natural effects that help us to stay focused in our work.  The first one is the more obvious point:  You are nearby to your boss or coworkers, and there is some fear of being caught off-task.  This seems sensible on the surface, but in reality how much do you really see your boss when you're in the office?  Probably not much.  And how many of your co-workers have you caught playing solitaire or surfing Google?  In many cases, alot.

The more important effect is less obvious, but thankfully we can reproduce in our homes.  What I'm talking about is the effect of context.  Essentially, we train ourselves to think and work in specific ways based on our surroundings:

• When you enter a restaurant, you begin to feel hungry.
• When you smell a certain perfume, you are reminded of a past flame.
• When the TV or radio are on, you are compelled to watch or listen.

Context is a major part of how we progress through our day.  Our brains are hardwired to translate our surroundings into matching thoughts and actions.   We train ourselves to attach specific surroundings to specific actions. 

The problem is that we can also introduce context that is counter to our goals.  For example:  A common cause of sleep problems is working or studying in bed.  This confuses our sense of context, and our brain stops identifying the bed as a place to sleep.

Back to comparing a workplace.  When we go to an office to work, we have clearly defined context.  Our brains are trained to focus on work while in that location, and distractions are kept away.

We can reproduce this in our home by creating a dedicated workspace.  Find a quiet part of your home, and use it for work, and work alone.  Don't do your bills there, or play video games after the work day in that location.  Find another place for those activities.

If you control your surroundings in a dedicated workspace, and then limit your time there to work alone,  you'll find yourself getting more done before you know it.   When you need a break, get up and walk away to another part of the house.  When you come back, get right back to work.  You'll find your worktime focus will be as good or better than in your old "cube-o-rama".